WA Today (from a few days ago) reports that Harvey Norman, king of the interest-free, nothing-to-pay-until-calendars-are-extinct deal, is getting rid of the deals, in order to get a “more stable income stream”.

RETAILER Harvey Norman has begun weaning itself off its popular no-deposit, interest-free deals offered through GE Money as the company seeks more stable income streams and consumers shun excessive debt.

Executive chairman Gerry Harvey said his stores, which have a 25-year relationship with GE, had already started to pull back on promotional activity surrounding the incentives, which can sometimes stretch out to as long as four years before customers have to pay for their purchases.

“We have actually reduced our interest-free offers over the last 12 months, because we are just trying to survive without everything being on interest-free,” Mr Harvey told BusinessDay.

“I’d love to do business with no interest-free [deals] but that’s not possible.”

The relationship has been a huge success to date for Harvey Norman and American financial giant General Electric, which owns GE Money. Since 2004, GE Money has furnished 1.5 million Harvey Norman customers with $3.8 billion worth of interest-free packages.